The use of constituent focus groups for more effective program planning and management
- Armonk, NY : M.E. Sharpe, September 2006
Ohio's industrial legacy includes thousands of abandoned or underutilized properties with environmental contamination that precludes economically beneficial use of the property. This paper describes the program planning process and its outcomes for one program authorized by new legislation to fund cleanup of these brownfields. Local administrative committees that would eventually make the funding award decisions were organized into focus groups across 19 administrative districts in the state of Ohio. These groups specified the program's award criteria and their definitions, established funding priorities, and developed a scoring rubric to award grants for brownfield cleanup activities. Findings from our analysis are important for understanding how stakeholder involvement in development of the scoring rubric allowed the administrative managers to improve the overall effectiveness of the program